Baseball Takes Series From # 6 Razorbacks

The Alabama baseball team took down another top 10 opponent this weekend as they won 2 of 3 games from the 6th ranked Arkansas Razorbacks at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The series win puts the Crimson Tide (29-23, 13-14) in 7th place in the SEC, a half game up on Kentucky and LSU and 1 1/2 games up on Tennessee.

Alabama defeated Arkansas 9-5 in the rubber game on Sunday and was led by senior CF Emeel Salem, playing his final game at the Joe. Salem had four hits in the game including a two run homer to break a 4-4 tie in the 6th inning. Junior Will Stroup pitched a complete game for the Crimson Tide.

Arkansas (37-16, 17-10) won Saturday's game 12-5 and pounded out four homers in the contest. Alabama won Friday nights opening game 10-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from Tommy Hunter and big offensive days from Salem and sophomore 3B/DH Alex Avilla.

Alabama now heads to Starkville, MS to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a three game series this week. The games will be starting a day earlier than usual with game one on Thursday. Games 2 and 3 of the series will be played on Friday and Saturday.

A complete overview of SEC Baseball is provided here....The Road to Hoover

Stunned Softball Ready To Host Tuscaloosa Regional

Most teams would be happy to host a NCAA Tournament Regional, but not when you get the 11 seed when you went into last week ranked # 1 in the country. The Alabama softball team was dealt a tough hand yesterday as the NCAA Softball Championship bracket was announced.

“Alabama could easily have been ranked higher," former UCLA and U.S. Olympic catcher Stacey Nuveman, a softball commentator for ESPN, said during the selection telecast. “The first thing I thought about was the SEC conference, and it really seems like they got raked over the coals."

Tide Head Coach Patrick Murphy agreed. “I think Stacey Nuveman said it best," he said. “You look at RPIs, you look at number of wins, the strength of the conference this year, I don’t think anybody saw this coming."

Alabama was not the only team in the SEC with a right to be upset. The Southeastern Conference had three teams rated in the top six at the end of the season, but only top-ranked Tennessee got a good enough seed to host through the super regional round if it advances, and the Lady Vols were seeded fifth despite being ranked No. 1 for much of the season. No. 6 LSU got the 10th seed and was shipped to a regional at Stanford, after they just won the SEC Tournament.

Whinning aside, Alabama can still play its way to Oklahoma City and show the NCAA they made a mistake in its selections by first winning its regional. Alabama, the top seed in the Tuscaloosa Regional, will host Tennessee Tech (48-17) at 6 p.m. in Friday’s first round in the double-elimination event, which runs through Sunday. California (33-30) and Florida State (44-23) will play in Friday’s other first-round game at 3:30 at the Alabama Softball Complex.